Rick Santorum needs to win 74 percent of remaining delegates

April, for Rick Santorum, may indeed be the cruelest month.The upcoming Republican primary calendar holds a dwindling number of opportunities for the former senator, making it difficult for him to rebound from the defeat he suffered Tuesday in Illinois.He has a good chance of beating Mitt Romney in the southern state of Louisiana on Saturday, the last primary election in March. But after that, April brings votes in seven northern states and the District of Columbia that award a combined 329 delegates. Romney is favored in most with the exception of Santorum's home state of Pennsylvania and perhaps Wisconsin. If Romney performs strongly and the delegate math increasingly favors the front-runner, Santorum will face increasing calls to stand down from his challenge by the end of the month, says Boston.com.

"The people that show up at these conventions are a heck of a lot more conservative than your average voter,'' said John P. Yob, Santorum's delegate specialist, who argued that the delegates are not likely to support "a moderate, establishment-backed candidate'' like Romney.Romney's aides said such a strategy, which depends on the ability to organize activists at conventions in far-flung states, is beyond the capabilities of the Santorum campaign, which has struggled even at the more basic task of getting its candidate on the ballot in several states."They have not shown any organizational prowess, so why would we think they're going to be able to do this?'' said Katie Biber Chen, the Romney campaign's general counsel, according to Boston Globe.

Romney has 563 pledged delegates, halfway to the 1,144 needed for the nomination. Rick Santorum has 263 and would need to win 74 percent of the remaining delegates."It's like a basketball game when somebody gets a 35-point lead - you just run out the clock," Ed Rollins, a longtime GOP campaign manager, said.Romney's latest campaign-contribution report shows he raised $11.5 million in February, and despite spending $12.4 million, still has $7.3 million, compared with Santorum's $2.6 million.The Restore Our Future PAC backing Romney raised another $6.4 million, informs New York Post.